Marquette Basketball: 2020-21 season preview for the Golden Eagles

Key Reserves

Let’s run through the key reserves at Wojo’s disposal this season.

G Greg Elliott: The Detroit native has battled a litany of injuries since enrolling at MU. Elliott suffered a hand injury during his freshman campaign and underwent hand surgery in the 2018 offseason that ultimately forced him to redshirt his sophomore season.

Upon his return in 2019, Elliott injured his ankle, which required surgery that forced him to miss much of his second offseason in a row. Though he was ready for the start of the 2019-20 season, he ultimately missed six games mid-year for an ankle injury that required yet another offseason surgery.

The coaching staff is understandably working him back into the fold slowly this time around, so it would be a mild surprise to see Elliott play much more than 20 minutes per game as a redshirt junior. While he has been an efficient three-point shooter on limited shots throughout his career (40 percent on 76 percent attempts), it has become clear that Elliott cannot be able to survive a heavy workload.

One indicator to see if Elliott is feeling a little springier and healthier this season – his finishing ability around the rim. As a freshman, nearly 58 percent of his shots came at the basket, which he converted at a 63 percent clip. Last year, only 34 percent of his shots came at the rim, and his success rate fell to 53 percent.

The healthy version of Elliott has the hunger to attack the paint and the elasticity to finish over bigger defenders. Let’s see if he is able to return to that form at some point in 2020-21.

G Symir Torrence: Torrence was everything you would expect from a freshman point guard. He did not play much behind Howard (11 mpg, 28 games played), and when he did, he turned the ball over way too much (31 percent TO rate), and struggled to guard on- and off-the-ball.

Still, even amidst all the rookie mistakes, Torrence’s passing shines as a foundational skill that can transform the offense. Torrence ranks fifth in assist rate among returning Big East players who played at least 25 percent of their team’s minutes last year, just behind some of the league’s best veteran guards: Charlie Moore, Marcus Zegarowski, Aaron Thompson, and Collin Gillespie.

We’ll see if Wojo ever trots out the aforementioned three-guard lineup of Carton, McEwen, and Torrence. All three players finished with assist rates north of 21 percent last season, so an up-tempo offense with passes whizzing around the floor is a thrilling concept for Golden Eagles fans. Of course, all three also struggled mightily with turnovers, so Wojciechowski will likely have a short leash for that grouping.

G/F Dexter Akanno: We haven’t seen much of Akanno, the three-star Class of 2019 recruit from New Jersey. He frequently gets compared to former Golden Eagle Sacar Anim, another 6-foot-4 lightly recruited wing who redshirted during his time in Milwaukee.

If Akanno can turn in an Anim-esque career, Marquette will have found another diamond in the rough. Akanno also has the size and build to hold his own in the Big East. However, as previously mentioned, the redshirt freshman was sidelined with a “COVID-related illness” as recently as Nov. 11. The Marquette faithful would be wise to temper expectations in 2020-21, but there is reason for optimism down the road.

F Justin Lewis & F Oso Ighodaro: These two frontcourt freshmen have been overshadowed by Garcia, but both provide intriguing possibilities to a program that is desperate for depth down low. While John and Garcia will get the bulk of the playing time inside, John’s constant foul trouble and Garcia’s freshman bumps will open the door for others to earn time.

Lewis, listed at 6-foot-7 and 245 lbs with a 7-foot-3 wingspan (!), looks like the early favorite to soak up time behind John at center. The Baltimore native ranked just inside the top 100 in 247Sports’ Composite rankings, and guided Baltimore Polytechnic Institute to two state titles in high school.

Ighodaro comes in with a little less hype, though he also led his high school squad to a state title in Arizona. The 6-foot-9 forward is significantly leaner than the carved Lewis, but Ighodaro does possess a near seven-foot wingspan. His presence will give Wojo some flexibility in the frontcourt, and it is easy to envision Ighodaro finding minutes as a backup 4 to Garcia.